The Entire Town of Story, Indiana—Population 3—Is For Sale

Jim Grey, Flickr // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Jim Grey, Flickr // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 | Jim Grey, Flickr // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Located an hour south of Indianapolis, Story, Indiana has everything a small town needs: an inn, a restaurant, and a handful of full-time residents (three people plus four dogs). As Atlas Obscura reports, the whole town can be yours for $3.8 million.

Though it resembles a ghost town today, Story was once home to a vibrant population. In 1851, a doctor named George P. Story founded the town when he received 173 acres of land from U.S. president Millard Fillmore. Originally called Storyville, it grew to sustain a church, a schoolhouse, a grain mill, a butcher shop, a blacksmith, a post office, a physician's practice, and a couple of general stores.

Even at its peak, Story was small, but the when the Great Depression crippled the U.S. economy, the town was all but abandoned. In the late 1970s, a couple purchased Story for $65,000 and transformed one of the old general stores into a bed and breakfast. Rick Hofstetter, a law professor who has worked to preserve historic landmarks, purchased the town in 1999 and renovated some of the buildings to make it a more appealing destination for tourists. He, along with the two co-owners of the Story Inn and restaurant, Jacob and Kate Ebel, make up the town's current population.

Story is home to 17.4 acres of property and six houses, all of which now serve as accommodations for the inn, and the town was recently named to the National Register of Historic Places. Check out the $3.8 million listing here.